M State President Carrie Brimhall is one of 28 college presidents nationally who are being recognized with the Phi Theta Kappa academic honor society’s Paragon Award for their strong support of student success.
The Paragon Award for New Presidents is awarded to new college presidents who have supported student success by recognizing academic achievement, leadership and service among their college’s high-achieving students. Recipients were nominated by students on their campuses.
“I’m honored to be recognized with the Paragon Award for New Presidents, but credit for the award also belongs to the whole college, because everyone at M State works so hard toward our goal of student success,” Brimhall said. “It means a great deal to me that this award was granted by the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society and, more importantly, that the nomination came from our students.”
A total of 500 college presidents nationally were eligible to receive the Paragon Award. Brimhall, who was named president of M State in 2018, is the only award recipient from Minnesota or North Dakota.
The award will be presented in April during PTK Catalyst 2020, the society’s annual convention, in Dallas.
PTK is the premier honor society recognizing the academic achievement of students at associate degree-granting colleges and helping them to grow as scholars and leaders. It is made up of more than 3.5 million members and nearly 1,300 chapters in 11 nations, with approximately 240,000 active members in the nation’s colleges. PTK students have a 91 percent student success rate, and research has shown that strong presidential leadership and support of PTK increases member success and the depth of their college experience.